Correcting the politically correct: the Politically Incorrect Guide to American History is a must-read for those seeking historical facts free of white-washing and revisionism.

The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, by Thomas E. Woods, Jr., Ph.D., Washington: Regnery, 2004, 256 pages, paperback, $19.95. Available from American Opinion Book Services, P.O. Box 8040, Appleton, W154912 (plus shipping and handling); by phone at 920-749-3783; or online at www.aobs-store.com.

With his latest book, Dr. Thomas Woods has accomplished what heretofore seemed impossible. His achievement isn't merely that he has written a book capably addressing and correcting the scourge of political correctness, but that his sorely needed work earned several weeks of notice on the New York Times bestseller list and that it has earned the condemnation of the most determined protectors of correctness at the Times. The Times steered its own Adam Cohen to pen a lengthy diatribe savaging the book. Appearing on the newspaper's editorial page (hardly an inconsequential bit of space), Cohen's hatchet job insists that the Guide is "historically wrong," "full of dubious assertions," and replete with "ideologically loaded" arguments.

So there you have it: the Establishment's most consistent dispenser of what's "fit" (the Times claims that it presents "All the news that's fit to print") doesn't like this book. We contacted Dr. Woods about the attention his book has generated, and he expressed sheer delight about Cohen's attack, calling it "great publicity." More to the point, he added that "our betters at Cohen's paper do their best to ensure that certain perspectives are neither covered nor even acknowledged. No wonder they hate my book."

Still a relatively young man and a professor of American history at one of New York's state colleges, Woods has himself triumphed over what he set out to correct. He endured public schooling in Massachusetts before earning a bachelor's degree at Harvard and two advanced degrees at Columbia University. How he emerged from all of that as an articulate and well-schooled champion of America's true history would make an interesting book all by itself.

Lively Lessons

Far from a dull textbook, his Guide is repeatedly spiced with humor amidst page after page of solid history. For example, he completely debunks the widespread belief held by just about every 20th-century graduate of the nation's government school system that the Civil War was fought over the issue of slavery. The South was being victimized by tariffs that benefited only the North, he claims, and state after state broke away in order to maintain the type of independence each possessed when the union was formed. Woods quotes slave-holding Union General Ulysses S. Grant: "If I thought this war was to abolish slavery, I would resign my commission and offer my sword to the other side."

The book's two chapters correcting popularly held attitudes about the war are worth the entire book. He maintains that "there never was a civil war" because that type of conflict is one "in which two or more factions right for control of a nation's government." But, he notes, "The seceding Southern states were not trying to take over the United States government; they wanted to declare themselves independent." Nor is it correct, he believes, to label the conflict a "War Between the States" because "Florida was not at war with New Hampshire, nor Rhode Island with Mississippi." The war was fought "between the United States government and the eleven Southern states that formed the Confederate States of America." What then would he accept as an accurate name for the struggle? He suggests that it be known as "the War of Northern Aggression."

Published in a wide-page format, the book's generous margins provide ample space for a steady supply of assorted gems labeled "What the Founders Said," "PC Today," "A Book You're Not Supposed To Read," "A Quotation the Textbooks Leave Out," even "Guess What?" Woods launches his comprehensive assault on prevailing misinformation by pointing to fallacies attached to the colonial period. He insists that the colonists didn't steal from the Indians; Christianity formed the only real bond among the early settlers who didn't like each other; and the battle against the British crown was a "War for Independence" and should never be labeled a revolution.

Woods then shows that the major concern of the Founders as they gathered and produced the Constitution was retention of states' rights under a strictly limited central government. He quotes James Madison's assurance that the powers of the federal government would be "few and defined." Addressing the Bill of Rights, he notes that the First Amendment guaranteed the retention by the states of unimpeded power to manage religious affairs, the Second Amendment guaranteed every man's unqualified right to be armed, and the Ninth Amendment protected numerous rights that weren't mentioned. Attacking a widely propagated error, Woods insists that the three-fifths clause in the Constitution wasn't a slur aimed at blacks but a device crafted to hold down the power of the slave states by watering down its population claims. As for the generally ignored Tenth Amendment, he claims that if it were taken seriously "most of the federal government's present activities would not exist. That's why no one in Washington ever mentions it."

Economic Enlightenment

We can only imagine the delicious disruption that students in today's universities could create with this book at hand. They would know that the so-called "robber barons" of the 19th-century were generally a plus for the nation, that anti-trust laws opened the way for monopolies while stifling competition, that government's assistance to 19th-century railroad builders impeded construction and "promoted waste and corruption," and that big business "made Americans better off."

If his corrections of 19th-century myths don't sufficiently irk purveyors of PC, Woods is sure to incur their wrath with claims that FDR's New Deal prolonged the Great Depression, labor law made America poorer, and America should not have intervened in World War I and other foreign quarrels. Pointing out that "historians loathe [1920s Presidents] Harding and Coolidge," because both "stayed out of the economy and out of people's lives," Woods delightedly cites Calvin Coolidge's assessment of his own presidency: "Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business."

In his survey of the post-WWII years, Woods insists that Senator Joseph McCarthy has been proven correct about Communists in government; FDR and Harry Truman gave away America's advantage to Stalin; returning to a market economy, not Marshall Plan foreign aid, put Germany back on its feet; ignoring the constitutional requirement for a congressional declaration of war at the start of the Korean conflict paved the way for delivering U.S. sovereignty to the UN; and the civil rights movement increased race consciousness rather than diminishing it. He labels Ike an internationalist, JFK a philanderer, LBJ a thief and an arch liberal, and Nixon another liberal who mismanaged the Vietnam War. Ever honest in his assessment of U.S. leaders, he points out that Ronald Reagan's rhetoric was indeed appealing, but his years in office should be remembered for increases in taxation, spending, and welfarism.

The book's only reference to Gerald Ford is his involvement, along with John E Kennedy, in the pre-WWII America First movement. Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush aren't even mentioned, likely because of insistence by the publisher that 256 pages were enough. According to Woods, Bill Clinton's "despicable" character deficiencies, while damaging to the nation, weren't as harmful as his official performance in which he "abused power, abetted Islamists, lied, and wasted billions of taxpayer dollars."

Academic Ammunition

Anyone about to send a child off to college, and maybe even to a government high school, would be wise to immunize the youngster with this remarkable book. In his bibliography, Woods recommends 150 books, articles, and monographs where corroborating information about the topics he addresses can be found.

Especially in the academic world political correctness rules. Because it does, Woods laments: "Americans, by and large, do not know enough of their own history to be able to challenge any of it, or even to realize that a problem exists." Those who read The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History will not only discover the problem, they will be well equipped to challenge both bad history and all who spread it.